Before I saw the picture I wasnt sure what I would see but that is some vry nice work and the color on the octopus is very nice and well balanced.

Pete

For me I always have the idea of what I want in the back of my head. I follow that up with locating an artist. Those are the fairly easy parts. Teh nexy and in my opinion most important is to find a clean shop. If i see an obsurd amount of flash on the walls and many pople picking from them I usually leave. If I see an autoclave machine that is an automatic no for me. I want any needle used on me to be right out of the package. So once I find all of my requirements I sit with the artist and tell them what I am looking for and if they are creatvie with me rathr than creatvie for me I usually get started.

that is an awesome lay out. I would love to see it whenever you get it complted.

The characters sound great. Just an idea since you are going ovr the shoulder is to put the dragon there as the tail can go all ovr your arm ya know? If not in the plans I would definitely put in some peonies for a splash of decent color. I am wokring on some information now for my wrist area. I am working with a friend who does japanese kanji and cot sure fian do charactrs to fit around my wrist. The tricky part is placing the characters all on your arm in what you feel would be the correct order. Do you want to have the samurai fighting the dragon or the dog? Or perhaps the geisha girl standing with the samurai? I am so interested in how it will come out. Please let me know.

Not sure if it will help you or not but I go to all the goodwill stores and libraries and pick up some awesome books with tattooing in them. Every once in a while I get lucky

Hello my friend. I am currently finishing up my japanese sleeve so I have a bit of experience : ) Also I lived in Japan and was deep in the culture. Ok enough of that. Now the first thing is what exactly are you looking for in the sleeve? Are you looking for traditional characters in the sleeve or are you looking to twist it to something that interests you? Do you plan on extending it into a full body pierce? if you could provide some more information on what you need and want it would be great. It took my artist and I 2 years to come up with the complete design for my sleeve and we still make little corrections. there are so many things to consider as it will be a huge piece. I would love to help and have several books that you can check on line to help you out. Let me know and I would happy to assist in any way.

Pete

Hello! I am knew to the boards as well but i have some hopefully helpful information for you. All of my tattoos have been done only when I had time. Eevry job I have had is outdoor and very physically laborous. I also live in Florida so times that by about ten. One thing I can recommend that may sound strange but has worked excellent for me is to cover the area with noxema skin cream and put saran wrap around the area tattooed area as you run. I have used this method for running, working, working out, and all sorts of different activities. Someone mentioned that the tattoo is an open wound and I could not agree more. The object is to apply something that will cover the wound while you run but still allow it to breathe a bit. Hope this helps.